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RESEARCH PRODUCT

From intra-oceanic subduction to arc accretion and arc-continent collision: Insights from the structural evolution of the Río San Juan metamorphic complex, northern Hispaniola

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description

The Río San Juan metamorphic complex exposes a segment of a high-pressure subduction-accretionary complex built during Caribbean island arc-North America continental margin convergence. It is composed of accreted arc- and oceanic-derived metaigneous rocks, serpentinized peridotites and minor metasediments forming a structural pile. Combined detailed mapping, structural and metamorphic analysis, and geochronology show that the deformation can be divided into five main events (D1eD5). An early subduction-related D1 deformation and M1 metamorphism produced greenschist (mafic rocks of the Gaspar Hernández peridotite-tectonite), blueschist and eclogite (metamafic blocks in the Jagua Clara mélange), high-P epidote-amphibolite and eclogite (Cuaba unit), and lower blueschist and greenschist-facies conditions (Morrito unit). This was followed by M2 decompression and cooling in the blueschist, greenschist and low-P amphibolite-facies conditions. The shape of the retrograde P-T path, the age of the exhumation-related D2 structures, and the tectonic significance of D2 deformation are different in each structural unit. Published UePb and 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages and T-t/P-t estimations reveal diachronic Turonian-Coniacian to Maastrichtian retrograde M2 metamorphism in the different structural units of the complex, during a consistent D2 top-to-the-NE/ENE tectonic transport. Regionally, a similar top-to-the-ENE tectonic transport also took place in the metasedimentary nappes of the Samaná complex during the Eocene to earliest Miocene. This kinematic compatibility indicates a general northeastward progradation of deformation in the northern Caribbean convergent margin, as the successive tectonic incorporation of arc, oceanic and continental-derived terrains to the developing Caribbean subduction-accretionary complex took place. D3eD5 deformations are discontinuous and much less penetrative, recording the evolution from ductile to brittle conditions of deformation in the complex. The D3 event substantially modified the nappe-stack and produced open folds with amplitudes up to kilometer-scale. The Late Paleocene-Eocene D4 structures are ductile to ductile-brittle thrusts and inverse shear bands. D5 is a Tertiary, entirely brittle deformation that had considerable influence in the geometry of the whole complex. From the Miocene to the Present, it has been cut and laterally displaced by a D5 sinistral strike-slip fault system associated with the Septentrional fault zone